Wednesday, September 12, 2012

THE DRAGAS-SULLIVAN SHAMBLES AT UVA

I thought you might be interested in this article from the NYT onthe Dragas-Sullivan shambles at UVA .. the demonstration was
the most fun I've had on campus since ... 1974?I don't think the controversy is over yet. The trend to "online
education" seems counterproductive to me in light of artist Kyle
McDonald's covert photographing ofpeople staring at new Apple computerswith
robotic expressions on their faces. Perhaps McDonald was just recording the
usual facial expressions of people absorbed in what Roland Barthes calls "the dream of reading" ....(See Guardian article on Kyle McDonald, and some of McDonald's other projects are also entertaining, as is this video.) As I noted in acomment on Kurzweil AI,
even though online education is being ballyhooed just now, perhaps
primarily as a cost-saving measure, probably a
great deal of intelligence, including what are possibly the most
valuable parts of education, are transferred most efficiently in
a human to human interface that allows the student’s mirror neurons an
opportunity to learn these intellectual behaviors in a process similar
to learning to dance. It seems possible that students won't learn the
most important elements of what we might call “the dance of
the intellect among facts” just by staring at a computer ... but then,
reading books and attending lectures have never been very important to
the ill-educated. Hoping to see you at the Messiah Sing In on
Tuesday, December 8, and 8 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall (not free any more,
but not expensive)

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About Me

Prize winning novelist and chef. My food column appeared in six daily newspapers long before the food revolution began. I have written several novels even less well known than beloved Gravely, which Scribner's published in 1984 and blessed with their Maxwell Perkins Prize. These manuscripts -- Why I Love Brunettes and Daughters -- are available to any interested reader. I started writing as a sports reporter on the Kingston Daily Freeman. I have a Master's Degree in Fiction Writing (telling lies?) ... but no B.A., though I do speak French and Spanish and have studied enough Greek to parse the Koinae. Long before I attended the famous Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, my food column Christian's Cookery used to appear in eight daily newspapers, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress and The Omaha World herald. After attending high school near Woodstock, New York, where they never had the Woodstock Music Festival, I owned a very successful money-making restaurant in Charlottesville. While working as a country mailman, I learned to jump small coops bareback. I have piloted hot air balloons. I love my children more than stars. Two of my best friends, both named David, died some years ago. I love scribbling, cooking and Morgon. I still believe B. Traven was Jack London. My favorite movie is Mr. Hulot's Holiday. And the restaurant opening scene from Playtime. Do you know me?